Hi guys,

I am seemingly absent, but I promise I am not. Things, once again, are rather complicated here. I mean, we had our normal winter chaos and anxiety and January is supposed to be our recovery time. But it has been relentless, I am unsure of what’s been disclosed previously, but fear I may once again not post if I don’t just write this now…. so this is a bit of what 2019 has had in store for us so far:

• Renovation works (flooring, plumbing -repairs and additions – and landscaping)
• Puppy seriously ill, suspected parvo but actually is likely he ate something he shouldn’t have. He is better now.
• Caitlin (youngest child) getting rushed to A&E – Suspected meningitis – turns out it was 2 separate infections in her body causing a fever together and a bad reaction.
• Our shower regurgitating toilet waste up through it (the person who sold this house had it as a doer upper… it appears they did the plumbing themselves with no understanding of gravity.
• Bruce was involved in a minor traffic collision (new driver pulled out of junction, straight into the side of him – car written off she crashed into rear passenger door/wheel arch, he’s ok though and we have a new car
• New car from previous point has stopped working (it’s under warranty and is in the garage being fixed, but it means we are down to one car, I am suffering with exhaustion and sciatica and having to either bit the bullet and carry a 87 year old in a toddler carrier, or push a wheelchair
• A few family/friends are really suffering with health in some quite extreme ways at the moment: cancer, heart and lung problems, mobility issues that are causing serious disruption and upset

And that’s just a heavily summarised overview, with the more trivial things pulled out/overlooked. I have gotten myself way behind at uni (I was 8 weeks behind and have caught up to 4 weeks), but somehow managed to pull off some half decent essays and assignments (equivalent to 1st or 2:1).

But. And here’s the big but… As ever, I am determined to be on top of everything. I will get there. In the interim I am going to catch up with the blog reviews as I can (alongside my uni work of course). And then I will be on top of it all. The major stuff in the house will be mostly done and uni will break up for summer so. I will. I know I can. In the interim though, I have several drafts work in progress. Watch this space for more to follow.